Bank Breakups: Not So Fast

By

Dan Fitzpatrick,

Robin Sidel and

Victoria McGrane

July 29, 2012 7:18 p.m. ET

Long before Sanford Weill suggested last week that big banks should split up, Bank of America Corp. executives and directors considered the idea and then decided against it, said people close to the nation's second-biggest bank by assets.

While the Charlotte, N.C., company's exploration of a possible breakup in 2010 and 2011 came and went, it illustrates the powerful and contradictory forces buffeting giant financial companies even...